Magic Slim & The Teardrops - 44 Blues CD

44 Blues songs Otis Rush has the home-court advantage on this live set recorded in Chicago, and he had just recently made his first album for Delmark--the great COLD DAY IN HELL--when he played this gig. Consequently both the musicians and a number of the tunes on the setlist hail from that album, though a couple of those are also Rush classics he'd recorded before, like this disc's title tune. This is mid-period Rush at his best, ripping into the songs with ferocious abandon, and really stretching out on the six-string (though never in a self-indulgent fashion). When "Cold Day In Hell" (DMK #638) was released in 1976, it was the first full-length album Otis Rush had out in quite some ...

44 Blues CD music vocalist/guitarist shows new facets in his blues talents, inc. his skills at smooth-swinging T-Bone-esque guitar, feat. Ken Saydak, Harlan Terson, Kenny Smith + 2 songs w. guitarist Dave Specter Recording information: Riverside Studio, Chicago, IL (10/22/1996-12/03/1996). Photographer: Susan Greenberg. Personnel: Lurrie Bell (vocals, guitar); W. Chamberlain (guitar); Ken Saydak (piano, organ); Kenny Smith (drums). Liner Note Author: Jim Feeney.

44 Blues album for sale The harpist hooked up with a young Maryland-based band called Tough Luck for this disc, certainly one of his better outings. The traditional mindset of the combo pushed Bell back to his roots, whether on the originals "Just like You" and the Horton homage "Big Walter Strut" or revivals of Muddy Waters' "Short Dress Woman" and "Walking Thru the Park" and the classic Little Walter title cut. ~ Bill Dahl Recorded at Wizard Works, Beltsville, Maryland. Includes liner notes by Geoffrey Himes. Personnel: Carey Bell (vocals, harmonica); Brian McGregor (guitar, electric guitar, acoustic bass, electric bass); Steve Jacobs (guitar); Lips Lackowitz (harmonica); Kevin McKendree (organ); Buddy Grandell (drums). Audio Mixers: Michael Freeman; Paul Smith . Liner Note Authors: Geoffrey Hinmes; Geoffrey Himes. Recording information: Wizard Works, Beltsville, MD. Unknown Contributor Roles: Eddie Boyd; ...

44 Blues buy CD music A promising guitarist whose personal troubles have perhaps kept him from realizing his full potential, Lurrie Bell rebounded from an early-'90s nadir with the intense and sometimes bizarre Mercurial Son, almost like a Chicago blues version of Skip Spence's Oar. The following 700 Blues was considerably more polished, but 1998's Kiss of Sweet Blues finds a workable middle ground between the two extremes. The songs, mostly by producer/rhythm guitarist Dave Specter and bassist Harlan Terson with Bell contributing only a pair of riff-based instrumentals, aren't as challenging as those on Mercurial Son, but they're entirely credible; "Blues and Black Coffee" and "Hiding in the Spotlight" have the hard-earned intensity to put themselves over even if they lack the earlier album's knife-edge immediacy and sometimes peculiar phrasing. Bell's ...

44 Blues album for sale Another quality L&R Records production that has been saved by a reissue on Evidence Music. Originally recorded in 1982, Chicago's Young Blues Generation features the raw, frantic work of guitarist Lurrie Bell and harp blower Billy Branch, who remain the closest the blues scene has to a modern-day Buddy Guy and Junior Wells. Back in 1982, Bell and Branch were still carving out a sound of their own -- an amalgam of Rice Miller, the West Side guitar slingers (namely Guy and Magic Sam), and the funkier Stax and Hi Records hitmakers. This album consists entirely of reworked blues and R&B covers, each one drawn out by lengthy, tag-team soloing -- sometimes derivative, but more often wildly inspired and unpredictable. Bell, in particular, goes for broke on almost every note, from his manic vocal inflections to the smallest guitar fill. Branch, meanwhile, stays mostly in Junior Wells mode (especially on the two Rice Miller covers, "Help Me" and "Don't Start Me to Talkin'"), although he has a few nice surprises up his sleeve, including the funky octave riff that redefines "Breakin' up Somebody's Home," the album's high point. Originally a minor footnote in modern blues history, Chicago's ...